Black Sabbath To Headline Hyde Park Festival

Black Sabbath will headline the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park in July.

The band fronted by Ozzy Osbourne will play the opening night of the festival on July 4.

Osbourne recollected that when he first time came to London from the West Midlands to record the band's debut album he spent the advance he got for the first album on a new pair of shoes and some Brut aftershave.

"Returning almost 50 years on we are doing a bit better for ourselves, so I may even splash out on some new aftershave before taking to the stage at Hyde Park - the most beautiful park in London - that has opened its gates to so many legends in the past," he said.

"We are beyond honoured to be allowed to put on a show and hope that the royals will enjoy it."

The original members of Black Sabbath - whose line-up is completed by Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi - reunited in 2013 after 35 years to produce a hit album and play a sell-out tour.

The album 13 took them to number one for the first time in 43 years. They had last achieved the feat with their second release Paranoid in 1970 which featured signature tracks such as War Pigs and Iron Man.

In announcing the festival would be "Black Sabbath Time", organisers said the band would "blaze onto the Great Oak Stage in Hyde Park for their first ever performance at the venue later this year".

"The band have one ambition left, to melt the faces off the Hyde Park crowd," they added.